Shiksha Sopan is a registered Non-governmental organization (NGO) run by IIT Kanpur Faculty, Students, Members, Employees and local Young Enthusiastic people for the upliftment of underdeveloped sections of the society through meaningful education

Motivation

It has long been felt that the present education system in our country lacks the basic elements of practical knowledge, ethical and virtuous value system. This kind of educational system is neither of much use in the life of a common villager nor does it help making him/her self-sustained or self department. Inspired by such rational thoughts, a group of IIT Kanpur students together with some socially active persons from the locality decided to overcome this bottleneck by setting up a system that would go beyond the narrow bookish education and link the education to the everyday life of students. These concepts led to the establishment of "Shiksha Sopan", literally meaning 'Education to be used as a ladder' in the year 2001. To put in one sentence.
Shiksha Sopan aims to evolve educational module, in direct collaboration with the villages close to IITK campus, that will build knowledgeable, self-department, confident, socially conscious being who would be responsible and sensitive to society.

The three keywords which provide the guidelines to Shiksha Sopan are Shiksha, Sanskar and Swavalamban. Thus we work to develop models where education is not just to earn bread, but which inculcates human values and makes on self confident.

Shiksha

Shiksha means education, not only to make machines out of people, but to produce socially sensitive, cultured and responsible citizen who will assets and not liabilities for society. Leaving aside the most commonly followed scheme of education through chalk and talk alone, a balanced delivery of knowledge through games, educational visits, audio and visual aids, demonstrations etc. is the theme on which we are trying to run our system.

Sanskar

Character building and inculcation of moral values to develop sense of altruism, feeling of patriotism and respect for humanity among its disciples and beneficiaries through regular practices is one of our main objectives.

Swavalamban

Unemployment is one of the most serious problems of mankind. And the solution lies in developing respect for human labour. During the school education we are trying to train the students in various labour-oriented skills that will help them creating employment for themselves. These include tailoring, handicrafts and production of consumable items such as candles, notebooks, etc. Such exercise will build self confidence and respect for labour and help the student in acquiring enough expertise in at least one profession to earn live hood for himself/herself.